CareOregon Merger
UPDATE: The merger has been CANCELLED. On the Evening of February 13th, 2024, company officials announced that the merger request was being withdrawn.
This comes after HCMO received a huge amount of testimony, both written and live testimony, that was overwhelmingly against the merger. A lot of this testimony was from HCAO supporters like you - whether you opposed or supported the merger, THANK YOU for being involved and speaking out. Your voice matters!
CareOregon will continue to successfully help thousands of Oregons access health care.
Keep reading below for more details about the merger.
CareOregon and SCAN Group wanted to merge to create a new California-based $6.8 BILLION company to manage health care access for 500,000 Oregonians.
What was at Stake:
CareOregon’s 500,000 Oregon members will fall under out-of-state management.
SCAN Group will move Oregon health care dollars and decision-making to California, including a $120 million upfront payout from CareOregon, plus billions in annual revenue will be managed out of state.
History shows big health care mergers prioritize profits over patient care, risking health care access and quality for Oregonians.
The Oregon Health Authority had authority approve or deny this, but SCAN Group and Care Oregon withdrew the merger application
What They Were Saying
Proponents of the merger say it will strengthen their ability to serve Oregonians by helping them compete with for-profit health insurance companies and to provide new services.
Opponents of the merger say that moving the management and billions of dollars out of state is too risky. It will reduce accountability and increase complexity, and could make it harder for 500,000 Oregonians to get medical care.
History says that large health care mergers increase costs but don’t improve patient care, but there has never been a Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) merger of this scale. For comparison, large Managed Care Organization (MCO) mergers don’t improve improve patient care but do increase costs, and studies show that large hospital system mergers increase costs without improving quality of care, and often make patient care worse.
You Made Your Voice Heard!
Oregonians, including hundreds of HCAO supporters, submitted written comments and attended listening sessions to speak live about what they thought about the merger.
Go Deeper ⬇️
What is CareOregon?
CareOregon is an Oregon-based, nonprofit, Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), that contracts with the State of Oregon to manage the health care of 500,000 Oregonians who are on the Oregon Health Plan.What is ScanGroup?
ScanGroup is a California-based, nonprofit who offers Medicare Advantage plans to 270,000 people in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas.What would the new merged entity have been?
If the merger had been approved approved, SCAN Group would have been be renamed HealthRight, and would have become the parent company of CareOregon. It would have been run in California, by the same individuals who currently manage SCAN Group. CareOregon would have paid SCAN Group $120 million to become the parent company of CareOregon. CareOregon would have contributed $25 million to start a charitable foundation to serve Oregonians.
Are big mergers in health care good or bad?
History shows that big mergers in health care usually increase costs while harming the quality of patient care. This would be the first CCO merger of this scale, but large mergers of Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) have increased costs without improving care, and large hospital system mergers usually result in worse quality of care and higher costs. This is backed up by evidence, as show in a well-known Harvard study.
What power did the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) have to approve or deny the merger?
The hearings that many of you attended were held by an OHA regulator called “CCO Form A.” They had the authority to decide to approve or deny the merger. Three OHA regulators would have had to approve the merger, the Health Care Market Oversight (HCMO), CCO Form A, and DCSB. These three regulators consider the following when approving or denying mergers:
| CCO Form A Upcoming hearing |
HCMO | DCSB |
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